Saving and restoring a state of a web application

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system, method and computer program product for saving and restoring a state of a web application. According to one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an indication from at least one portlet of the web application for monitoring the state of the portlet, A type of storage mechanism supported by a client interface used for accessing the web application may be detected. An event indicating an input of a content in a form of a page of the portlet may be detected. The content received as input may be saved into a memory using the detected type of storage mechanism. The state of the page may be restored on reload using the content stored into the memory.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to information technology, and morespecifically, to saving and restoring a state of a web applicationwithout modifying it as it is deployed.

A web application in general may be hosted on a server and a user mayaccess the web application through a thin client interface on a clientdevice. The web application may include html based forms and the usergenerally fills out the forms to provide the required content as input.In certain usage scenarios, a user may navigate away from a pagedisplaying the form, in order to refer to some information that isrequired to be provided. For example, in aspects of the web applicationbeing a portal, navigation may include, a user navigating from oneportal page to another, navigating from one portlet state to another onthe same portal page, and navigating from one page of a portlet toanother page of the portlet on the same portal page. For example, incase of a portal, more than one web page may be integrated into the sameportal.

SUMMARY

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided asystem, a computer program product and a method of saving and restoringa state of a web application, wherein the method includes receiving anindication from at least one portlet of the web application formonitoring the state of the portlet. The method may also includedetecting a type of storage mechanism supported by a client interfaceused for accessing the web application. The method may also includedetecting an event indicating an input of a content in a form of a pageof the portlet. The method may also include saving the content receivedas input into a memory using the detected type of storage mechanism. Themethod may further include restoring the state of the page on reloadusing the content stored into the memory.

According to another embodiment, a computer program product for savingand restoring a state of a web application may include a computerreadable storage medium having program code embodied therewith. Theprogram code may be executable by a processor for receiving anindication from at least one portlet of the web application formonitoring the state of the portlet. Program code may also be includedfor detecting a type of storage mechanism supported by a clientinterface used for accessing the web application. Program code may alsobe included for detecting an event indicating an input of a content in aform of a page of the portlet. Program code may also be included forsaving the content received as input into a memory using the detectedtype of storage mechanism. Program code may further be included forrestoring the state of the page on reload using the content stored intothe memory.

According to yet another embodiment, a system may include a memoryhaving computer readable instructions, and a processor for executing thecomputer readable instruction. The instructions may include instructionsfor receiving an indication from at least one portlet of the webapplication for monitoring the state of the portlet. Instructions may beincluded for detecting a type of storage mechanism supported by a clientinterface used for accessing the web application. Instructions may alsobe included for detecting an event indicating an input of a content in aform of a page of the portlet. Instructions may also be included forsaving the content received as input into the memory using the detectedtype of storage mechanism. Instructions may further be included forrestoring the state of the page on reload using the content stored intothe memory.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the presentdisclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects,features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent, wherein the same reference generally refers to the samecomponents in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 shows an example computer system which is applicable to implementthe embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an example system for saving and restoring a state of a webapplication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts an example block diagram of a system for saving andrestoring a state of a web application according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 4 depicts an example flow for a process in accordance with aspectsof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some example embodiments will be described in more detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings, in which the example embodiments of thepresent disclosure have been illustrated. However, the presentdisclosure can be implemented in various manners, and thus should not beconstrued to be limited to the embodiments disclosed herein. On thecontrary, those embodiments are provided for the thorough and completeunderstanding of the present disclosure, and completely conveying thescope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentdisclosure may be embodied as a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present disclosure are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

Referring now to FIG. 1, in which an example computer system/server 12which is applicable to implement some embodiments of the presentdisclosure is shown. Computer system/server 12 is only illustrative andis not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of embodiments of the disclosure described herein.Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/orconfigurations that may be suitable for use with computer system/server12 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, servercomputer systems, thin clients, thick clients, hand-held or laptopdevices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set topboxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputersystems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computingenvironments that include any of the above systems or devices, and thelike.

Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context ofcomputer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer system. Generally, program modules may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and soon that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer system/server 12 is shown in the form of ageneral-purpose computing device. The components of computersystem/server 12 may include, but are not limited to, one or moreprocessors or processing units 16, a system memory 28, and a bus 18 thatcouples various system components including system memory 28 toprocessor 16.

Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures,including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, anaccelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of avariety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation,such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus,Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, VideoElectronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computersystem readable media. Such media may be any available media that isaccessible by computer system/server 12, and it includes both volatileand non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 28 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cachememory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 34 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, amagnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable,non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical diskdrive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile opticaldisk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided.In such instances, each can be connected to bus 18 by one or more datamedia interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below,memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g.,at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out thefunctions of embodiments of the disclosure.

Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program modules 42,may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation, aswell as an operating system, one or more application programs, otherprogram modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one ormore application programs, other program modules, and program data orsome combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networkingenvironment. Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/ormethodologies of embodiments of the disclosure as described herein.

Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more externaldevices 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 24, etc.;one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computersystem/server 12; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.)that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or moreother computing devices. Such communication can occur via Input/Output(I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 cancommunicate with one or more networks such as a local area network(LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g.,the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 viabus 18. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardwareand/or software components could be used in conjunction with computersystem/server 12. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode,device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays,RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

FIG. 2 depicts a system 50 for saving and restoring a state of a webapplication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Asshown in the example of FIG. 2, the system 50 may include a server node55 and a client device 60 operatively connected by a network 65. Ingeneral, the client device 60 may include the computer system 12 of FIG.1 operated by a user. The server node 80 may include the computer server12 of FIG. 1. The network 65 may be a local area network (LAN), ageneral wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., theInternet). The server node 55 may host one or more web applications andthe user may access the web applications hosted at the server node 55from the client device 60 through a thin client interface such as a webbrowser. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the oneor more web applications may be a portal comprising one or moreportlets. A portlet may include a specialized content area within aportal that occupies a small window in the portal. The portlet canprocess requests and generate dynamic content. In certain embodiments, apage may be embedded into the portlet using an iframe. A user cannavigate through the embedded page.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the portal isconfigured to save and restore a client state behavior. For example, aclient state of the web application being accessed using the clientdevice 60, not yet submitted to the server node 55, may be saved, sothat the saved state may be retrieved later for restoring the state ofthe portlet. To achieve this, an application may be provided with theportal that is loaded on the client device when a user accesses theportal. The application may be notified of the portlets which should bemonitored for saving the state. According to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure, a portlet for which the state is to be saved may beconfigured to provide an indication to indicate that the state of theportlet should be monitored. The application may be configured toreceive this indication. Responsive to the indication, the page of theportlet may be configured to provide an identification informationuniquely identifying the page of the portlet to the application. Thismay make the application aware as to the portlet and the page of theportlet which is to be monitored. According to one embodiment, theapplication may be configured to detect a storage mechanism supported bythe thin client interface through which the web application may beaccessed. Examples of storage mechanisms supported by thin clientinterfaces, may include, client-side cookie, internet explorer user databehavior, storage application programming interface (API), and the like.This may assist the application to use the storage mechanism supportedby the thin client for saving the state of the page.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the applicationmay be configured to save the state of a page on detecting that contenthas been provided as an input by the user. For example, this may beachieved by detecting an event indicating the input of a content in aform of a page of the portlet or unload of the current portel pagecontent and the content inputted may be saved into a memory (e.g., thesystem memory 28 in FIG. 1 and/or the storage system 34 in FIG. 1) theclient device 60 comprises. Saving the content inputted by the user maysave the client state. In one embodiment, the event may be generatedwhen the user navigates from a text input field in the form. Forexample, while filing out the form, the user may input the content inone text input field and then navigate to another text input field toinput the content therein. Therefore, according to one embodiment, theevent may be generated when the user navigates from one text input fieldto another.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the state of thepage may be saved such that the saved state of the page may be restoredat a later stage. For example, the content provided as an input by theuser may be saved and the state of the page may be restored using thesaved content when the page is visited again by the user. To achievethis, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, theapplication may be configured to associate an identification informationof a session of the portal and an identification information of the pageof the portlet to the saved content. The identification information ofthe session of the portal and the identification information of the pagemay be used to restore the state of a page of a portlet. For example,the identification information of the page may assist in uniquelyidentifying a page and the saved state of the page corresponding to theidentification information may be retrieved for restoring the state. Theidentification information of the session of the portal may assist indetermining if it is the same session or a new session. According to oneembodiment of the present disclosure, the state of a page may berestored if the session of the portlet being accessed is the same as thesession of the state saved. If case the session is a new session, thestate of a page saved may be cleared and the state of the new sessionmay be saved. This may assist in clearing the saved state of a page fromthe memory in aspects of expiry of a session. In aspects of anexplicitly logout by a user, application may be configured to clear thesaved state of a page from the memory.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the applicationmay be configured to create a namespaced region in the memory for eachof the portlet page being monitored. The namespaced region for a pagemay be associated with the identification information of the session ofthe portel and the identification information of the page. On explicitlogout of the portal, the namespaced region corresponding to the portalsession may be cleared. In aspects of an expiry of a session, thenamedspaced region may be cleared in a subsequent session. Theapplication may be configured to determine in a subsequent session ifany stale namespaced region exists. If any stale namespaced regionexists, then the the stale namespaced region is cleared and a newnamespaced region may be created for the current session.

For example, when an earlier visited page or iframe of a portlet isloaded again without a portal page reload or even with portal pagereload, the saved state may be queried from the memory and the contentsof the form may be filled in with the previously entered content.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, even if the sameweb page is integrated more than once on the same portal page or on adifferent portal page, the unique state of each such instance of the webpage may be saved separately. For example, this may be achieved bycreating different respective namespaced region. As described in theparagraphs above, an identification information of a session of theportal and an identification information of the page of the portlet maybe associated with the saved content. The namespaced region may becleared on explicit logout or on expiry of the portal session.

FIG. 3 depicts an example block diagram of a system 80 for saving andrestoring a state of a web application according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The system 80 may include a processing unit 16operably coupled to a memory 28. The processing unit 16 may include areceiver module 95, a storage detector module 100, an event detectormodule 105, a content saving module 110 and a state restoration module115. The receiver module 95 may be configured to receive an indicationfrom at least one portlet of the web application for monitoring state ofthe portlet. The storage detector module 100 may be configured to detecta type of storage mechanism supported by a client interface used foraccessing the web application. The event detector module 105 may beconfigured to detect an event indicating an input of a content in a formof a page of the portlet. The content saving module 110 may beconfigured to save the content received as input into the memory 28using the detected type of storage mechanism. The state restorationmodule 115 may be configured to restore the state of the page on reloadusing the content stored into the memory 28.

FIG. 4 depicts an example flow for a process 400 in accordance withaspects of the present disclosure. In embodiments, the process 400 canbe performed by the computer system 12 in FIG. 1.

At step 405, the process starts. At step 410, an indication may beprovided from at least one portlet of the web application for monitoringthe state of the portlet. The indication from the portlet may beprovided to the application loaded onto the client device (e.g., theclient device 60 in FIG. 1) when the portal is accessed. Next at step415, a storage mechanism supported by a client interface used foraccessing the web application may be detected. At step 420, an eventindicating an input of content in a form of a page of the portlet may bedetected. The portlets of the portal may be configured to generate anevent when content is being provided as input by a user. Next at step425, the content inputted may be saved into a memory using the detectedstorage mechanism. At step 430, the state of the page may be restored onreload using the content stored into the memory. The stored content maybe queried from the memory for restoring the state. At step 435, theprocess ends.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The embodiments described herein may enable saving and restoring thestate of a web application. The web application may be a portalincluding one or more portlets. The client state not yet submitted fromthe client device to the service node may be saved. The saved state maybe used for restoring the state of a page of the portlet. Thus, a usercan safely navigate across pages of a portlet or pages of a portal andthe values entered in the elements of a form may be preserved unlessmodified in which case the modified values will replace the older set ofvalues. Additionally, for implementing the embodiments, the webapplication may not be required to be modified in any manner.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present disclosurehave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

1. A method of saving and restoring a state of a web application, themethod comprising: receiving, by a processor, an indication from atleast one portlet of the web application for monitoring the state of theportlet; detecting a type of storage mechanism supported by a clientinterface used for accessing the web application; detecting an eventindicating an input of a content in a form of a page of the portlet;saving the content received as input into a memory using the detectedtype of storage mechanism; and restoring the state of the page on reloadusing the content stored into the memory.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein saving the content received as input into the memory includes:associating the content with a first identification information of asession of the web application; and associating the content with asecond identification information of the page of the portlet.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising identifying the content from thememory for restoring the state of the page using the firstidentification information and the second identification information. 4.The method of claim 2, wherein saving the content received as input intothe memory includes: constructing a namespace area in the memory for theportlet, the namespace being associated with the first identificationinformation and the second identification information; and saving thecontent in the namespace area.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising clearing the content from the memory corresponding to anexpiry of a session of the web application.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising clearing the content from the memory corresponding toa termination of the web application.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinrestoring the state of the page on reload using the content stored intothe memory comprises filing out one or more elements of the form withthe content. 8.-20. (canceled)